Game Preseason Report - Wolves v Sixers

[Lipoli390]

Small crowd, even by preseason standards. But a lot of fun. Guys, we are really going to enjoy watching this team this season. It could not have started better with the Wolves getting their first bucket on an alley-oops from Ricky to Wiggins. But Wiggins was not the story tonight. There were actually a lot of story lines because there were a lot of key contributors to the win tonight. And that's the biggest story of all -- i.e., the talent on this team extends far more broadly this season compared to last. So I think we can't expect to see a lot of games like tonight's where the scoring is widely distributed. As my friend said tonight, this is a fun team to watch because you never know who is going to do something significant or spectacular. A few thoughts about some individuals:

The Wolves best player was clearly Mo Williams. Another gold star goes to Flip for pursuing and signing this guy. Importantly, what Mo did tonight was not an anomaly. That's the way he's played his entire career, so we should expect him to give this team a big boost throughout the season. He is the guy we always wanted JJ to be. What I found particularly heartening is that he still has the same spring in his step and passion he's always had. He's 32 years old, but still has the quickness, spring and passion of a 27 year old. He was not only our best player, but the team's leader as well. He led by example, but he also spent a lot of time talking to the young guys during timeouts. Great acquisition!

The best of our kiddie corps was not Wiggins or even LaVine -- it was Anthony Bennett. It wasn't just the 13 points, 8 boards and a steal in 25 minutes. It was his hustle and, more so, his feel for the game. Folks, this guy is a basketball player. He has excellent court presence and made some terrific passes. He crashed the boards and dove for loose balls. He ran the court beautifully and attacked the basket aggressively with some emphatic dunks. He also has a very nice looking shot. If this guy pans out as I think he will, then the Love trade on its own will enshrine Flip Saunders as an elite GM.

Zach also had a terrific game. More than his excellent 15 points in only 22 minutes on 6-11 shooting, his on-ball defense was outstanding. He is so quick laterally and plays with so much heart I have no doubly he will eventually turn out to be one of best defenders at his position.

Brewer brought great energy as usual tonight and he also had a good shooting night. I like that Flip doesn't have him taking many threes. So Brewer is playing within himself and that made him fairly efficient tonight.

Young was solid and Pek missed too many bunnies like last season. Pek really needs to improve his finishing down low. I didn't see any improvement in Dieng compared to the last month of last season. But he put up decent numbers with 9 boards and 2 blocks. He has to get tougher inside and stop gambling on steals. Ricky looked out of sorts early, but he eventually got it together and had a terrific Rubio-type game.

What about Wiggins? He didn't really do much to show up in the box score tonight. But I love the way he moves without the ball.

Finally, I loved watching Flip manage the game and coach the young guys. What a pleasure to watch an active head coach on the Wolves bench. It's been a while. :). You can tell that Flip and Sam really like these players. They seem to be particular fond of Ricky - putting their arms around him, laughing and joking with him.

I'll just conclude by saying that Target Center will be a very fun place to be this season.

[Eitan]

Great report Lip, Thank you for the very interesting insight from the game. I only saw the highlights of the game.
Good to hear that Mo AB and Lavine had a very good game tonight as a bench players, which let us the opportunity to play good for the hole 48 minutes - A thing that we didn`t have last year (the bench was really bad comparing to the starting lineup). I also like Flip`s 10 player rotation tonight.
I`m really interesting on how was our team defense tonight (We had 14 steals and 3 blocks but Phili had 110 pts on the other hand)?

[Carlos Danger]

Good report. Pretty much exactly as I saw the game. I don't know much about Mo Williams, but he sure looked good last night. I saw him explaining plays to Bennett on several occassions which is the leadership that Flip wants for the young guys. Fun game to watch. And as you mentioned, many contributors.

As good as it was, I had two things I could rip though. First, the defense as a whole still isn't where it needs to be. I doubt Philly will be a good team and we let them score 110 while staying in the game until the end. But with so many new faces and a new system - we have to be patient. I have confidence in Flip and at least the effort seemed there last night.

Second, Ricky needs to take care of the ball better. He almost had a rare triple double: Assists, points....and turnovers! He plays hard and I realize his style (taking chances) leads to more turnovers. I just think he was a little careless at times.

Again - it's early and one game. But those were my only critiques from last night.

[60WinTim]

Thanks, Lip!

It took Pek a month or so into the regular season last year to shake off the rust. We absolutely need him this year, so hopefully that rust comes off much quicker...

There's a lot that has to get better, but it's pretty encouraging to see where we are already this early in the pre-season.

I still don't see us taking a step back this year in terms of wins. But I guess that's just me, phenom and doper...

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Thanks for the report Lip.

I'm not nearly as high on Mo Williams as you. While I think he's an upgrade over Barea, I hardly consider him a difference maker. His TS% the last two seasons with better teams is 52% and 51% and has been on a downward trend for the last four seasons. So while he was efficient in last night's preseason game against a virtual D-league team, I will rely on data from the last two years to peg his most likely production - and it isn't really all that good. Plus he's pretty turnover prone for a jump-shooting veteran guard.

I'm seeing flashes of potential from the young guys, like everyone else. Defensively, both Wiggins and LaVine seem to be ahead of the curve, which is very encouraging. Both have tremendous lateral quickness, which doesn't always go hand-in-hand with straight-line speed and verticality. They have all three physical gifts. Bennett showed flashes too. It's too early to conclude how these guys will play out for us, but there are encouraging signs.

All in all, it looks like 3-point shooting and half-court defense will be key weaknesses this season. Allowing a D-League team to hang 110 points on 54% shooting is absolutely atrocious. That's now two out of two games where our defense looked poor - and Kevin Martin isn't even playing!

[Monster]

I read somewhere recently that Pek stayed off that ankle a lot of the offseason so yeah he may have some rust. I'm not worried about Pek's actual game injuries are the only real issue with that dude.

I've been reading a bit about Month Williams and I've been surprised but it seems like he is a good dude that's been praised for his leadership in his stops. I was thinking he was more of a Jamal Crawford vet loose cannon type but it seems I was wrong. I was pretty happy with the signing but its looking even better now. He has seen pretty much everything in his career from bad teams to being in the Finals with Lebron and the Cavs. He has plenty of experiences to be a leader from.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Thanks, Lip!

It took Pek a month or so into the regular season last year to shake off the rust. We absolutely need him this year, so hopefully that rust comes off much quicker...

There's a lot that has to get better, but it's pretty encouraging to see where we are already this early in the pre-season.

I still don't see us taking a step back this year in terms of wins. But I guess that's just me, phenom and doper...

Agree on Pek. I remember how everyone was lamenting his poor start last season and then suddenly he was playing like an all-star after the first month or two. Of course, then the injuries came.....

We really need Pek to stay healthy this year if we have any shot of winning 30 games.

[mjs34]

Thanks, Lip!

It took Pek a month or so into the regular season last year to shake off the rust. We absolutely need him this year, so hopefully that rust comes off much quicker...

There's a lot that has to get better, but it's pretty encouraging to see where we are already this early in the pre-season.

I still don't see us taking a step back this year in terms of wins. But I guess that's just me, phenom and doper...

Tim, I have to admit that I was shocked at the lack of continuity last night. They were up against what amounts to a D league team, and struggled to get the upper hand all night. I realize we have a lot of new faces, and the inexperience is going to be tough to overcome, but they looked so out of sync that it was hard to watch at times. I am going to chalk it up to playing down to your opponent. It can be tough trying to prepare and play against a team that is so disorganized.

I saw something completely different than you Lip. I thought that might be Ricky's worst game since joining the wolves. Even though he was 50% shooting and 9 assists, he didn't look like he was controlling the offense. I found myself actually questioning whether they should be offering him the 48 mil/4 yrs. Hopefully it is all due to the roster changeover he is dealing with.

Was not shocked, but disappointed in Young's performance. I guess it is what I expected, but was hoping for more. Lavine and Bennett were bright spots, and I think Wiggins floor is a Batum type player, with a very high ceiling. Mo as stated earlier, is exactly what we want from the backup PG. A guy who can carry the scoring load, but is also going to be a great mentor to the young guys.

I keep telling myself that they are only a little more than a week into preseason, but what I watched last night is closer to a 20 win team, than a 40.

[Lipoli390]

I kept my report positive with the understanding that this is a young team under a new coach and that they haven't played together much. That said, I'll add my voice to those who commented on how horrible our defense was last night. It was really, really bad. The Sixers scored 110 points and were able to score easily on a lot of possessions. Thad did not defend well inside at all. Dieng also played very poorly on the defensive end. I loved Brewer's energy and offense last night, but when you watch him live you see that he's actually a relatively poor defender. The individual defense from Wiggins, Zach and Bennett was good, but their team defense was not.

I think some of the defensive problems are fixable from a team standpoint. But we are going to be hurting defensively at the PF, center and SG positions. And Thad is NOT a good defensive rebounder. Note he had only one rebound last night. So no doubt this team will struggle defensively. They will improve defensively as their team defense improves. But there's a reason Vegas has the over-under at 25.5 wins.

Nevertheless, this will be a fun team to watch this season and I believe it has the makings of something special over the long haul. And in spite of the team's growing pains this season, I'd bet the over.

[Monster]

I haven't seen the games and I don't know what defensive schemes the Wolves are trying to impliment but if its a legit team defense its gonna look ugly early on if everyone has to rely on particular principals of rotation etc. Guys have to learn to trust each other and know what to do. If one guy screws up everything breaks down. Flip has talked a big game on D but that's one thing I'm not really convinced about him being really good on except his idea of playing a zone which I think is a good idea. Its troublesome they let the Sixers do well though but I'm not gonna freak out too much.

Also Q thanks for being a voice of reason. I'm not nameing Williams 6th man of the year or all-star or anything I just think he is a vet combo guard that should be able to help off the bench. He is the opposite of Rubio which compliments him and actually has the skillset to score while also doing some PG stuff. He is better than JJ who I do think can still play but Williams should be a step up from even JJ's solid years. I sorta can't believe we got him to come here.